Power,Subversion And Containment

Lisa See (1955--) is one of the most active writers in the contemporary Chinese American literature. Since1955, she has published eight novels and biography. Her works mainly take Chinese culture as the background, and most of her stories are concerned with Chinese people. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, based on Nvshu originating from Hunan province of China, tells a story of a pair of Laotong, two females who have a pure and deep affection with each other--Lily and Snow Flower.New Historicism is a cultural academic theory differing from the criticism of old historicism and formalism. It gets rid of the limitation of formalism and combines the dimension of history and literature text to form its brand-new perspective. And the scope of this theory also extends to different fields such as the Anglo-American literature, anthropology, science and art. It breaks the restriction of subjects and absorbs a variety of theories. Among the theories, Foucault’s power theory and Greenblatt’s "subversion--containment" theory are both of great importance to the development of the theory of New Historicism and its practical criticism.Based on the theory of New Historicism, mainly using the three key words--"power","subversion" and "containment", the thesis tries to show the survival situation of the female under the control of the male and mainstream culture in the feudal society, display the subversion of Nvshu culture to the mainstream culture, discuss the bankruptcy of Laotong sisterhood--Lily and Snow Flower, and analyze the challenge of Snow Flower and Third Sister to prove how they have been contained by the mainstream ideology.This thesis consists of introduction, four chapters and conclusion.The introduction focuses on Lisa See and her novel Snow Flower and the Secret Fan and the literature review of the novel.Chapter One is the general review of New Historicism and the important concepts used for analyzing the novel Snow Flower and the Secret Fan.Chapter Two is to show the survival situation of the female under the supreme patriarchy and the supreme Confucianism in the feudal society according to the analysis of the power in the novel.Chapter Three is to analyze the subversive elements in the novel. It interprets the Nvshu culture’subversion to the mainstream culture, the sisterhood of Lily and Snow Flower’s distortion to the essential meaning of Laotong’s relationship and Lily, Snow Flower and Third Sister’s challenge to the image of traditional female.Chapter Four is to analyze how the subversion of Lily, Third Sister and Snow Flower are contained by the mainstream society in different ages.The conclusion summarizes the viewpoints of four previous chapters. By interpreting Lisa See’s Snow Flower and the Secret Fan from the perspective of the theory of New Historicism, especially analyzing the existence of power, subversion and containment and their interrelationships in the novel, this thesis can deepen the understandings of the novel and enrich the practical value of the theory of New Historicism.